There can’t possibly be
anyone that doesn’t like a hot dog now and then. And for those who really,
really like hotdogs, here’s a trivia quiz to test your knowledge about one of
America’s favorite foods.

See how much you know
about one of America’s favorite foods.

(To find the answers, hover
your mouse over the hot dog after each question.

12. How many hot
dogs will Americans eat in major league ball parks during baseball season?

A) 4 billion

B) 26 million

C) 3 million

D) 11 billion

13. "Little dog" sausages became standard fare at ballparks in 1893 in which
city?

A) New York City
B) St. Louis
C) Cleveland
D) Boston

14. Hot dogs aren’t just for
baseball fans! In 1995, three Seattle Seahawk football players were fined
$1,000 each for eating hot dogs on the sidelines of a pre-season game. Why were
they eating these hot dogs?

A) The smell of hot dogs wafting down from the stands was
simply irresistible to the hungry players

A
big part of promoting the hot dog is the traveling WienermobileTM. By
logging on to Kraft Food’s web site (www.Kraftfoods.com)
you can find out just where the WienermobileTM can be seen. Each year the WienermobileTM
travels about 1,000 miles per week, or about 50,000 miles per year. If you’re
lucky enough to spy it cruising the neighborhood, be sure and get on board.

21. Where
and when did the first WienermobileTM cruise the streets?

A) Detroit,
1931

B) New York,
1928

C) Boston,
1934

D) Chicago,
1936

22. How
much does a WienermobileTM weigh today?

A) 8,000 pounds

B) 2 tons

C) 5,000 pounds

D) 1,000,000 hot dogs

23. On what
television show has the WienermobileTM appeared?

A) “Love Connection”

B) “Nightline”

C) “Sesame Street”

D) “Let’s Make a Deal”

24. In how
many movies has the WienermobileTM co-starred?

A) None

B) 1

C) 2

D) 4

25. What was
the name of the man who handed out WienerwhistlesTM to children from
his WienermobileTM?

A) Wee Willy Wiener

B) Oscar Mayer®

C) Little Oscar

D) Whistleman

26. What city
almost banned the Oscar Mayer® WienermobileTM?

A) Chicago,
Illinois

B) Madison,
Wisconsin

C) Detroit,
Michigan

D) San
Francisco

27. What are
the people who drive the Oscar Mayer® WienermobileTM called?

A) “Hotdoggers” are the people who drive the
Oscar Mayer® WienermobileTM s.

B) “Little Oscars”

C) “Wiener men”

D) “Frank Furters”

28. Who
took a WienermobileTM
for a test lap at the 1988 Indy 500?

A) John
Andretti

B) Tony Stewart

C) Al Unser,
Jr.

D) Robby Gordon

29.
How much did WienerwhistlesTM cost at the 1965 New York World’s Fair?

A) 2 cents

B) 5 cents

C) a dime

D) they were free
with the purchase of a hot dog

30. Who
wrote the wiener jingle for Oscar Mayer?

A) Paul Anka

B) Richard
Trentlage

C) Paul Simon

D) Oscar Mayer

31. Which symphony
orchestra recorded the familiar ditty "I wish I were an Oscar Mayer® Wiener?"

1. D) Good question!
- While sausages are mentioned in historical texts as far as the Odyssey
of Homer, written in the 9th century B.C., the variant known as the
"frankfurter" is rumored to have been invented in Frankfurt, Germany around 1484
A.D. However, the citizens of Vienna (Wien), Austria point to their own "Wiener"
as the progenitor of the hot dog.

2. C) Dachshund sausages
– An old
urban legend has it that when renowned sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan couldn’t
spell dachshund, he wrote "hot dog" instead. The name stuck. However, no copy
of Dorgan's cartoon has yet been found, and both the practice of selling
sausages in buns and the habit of calling them "hot dogs" were around well
before the 1900s when T.A. Dorgan was supposedly "inventing" the term.

3. B) St. Louis "Louisiana
Purchase Exposition" in 1904
– Bavarian concessionaire Anton Feuchtwanger loaned his
customers white gloves to protect their hands from the steaming wieners. Most
patrons failed to return these gloves, and his supply began running low.
Feuchtwanger allegedly asked his brother-in-law - a baker by trade - for help.
The brother-in-law improvised long soft rolls that fit the meat, and thus
invented the hot dog bun. However, others
claim that a German immigrant sold sausages, along with milk rolls and
sauerkraut, from a push cart in New York City's Bowery during the 1860's.
Another report states that in 1871, German butcher Charles Feltman opened up the
first Coney Island hot dog stand, and sold 3,684 dachshund sausages in a milk
roll during his first year in business. By the way, wieners and frankfurters
don't become hot dogs until someone puts them in a roll or a bun.

4. D)New
York
– In 2004, New Yorkers consumed $112.7 million worth of frankfurters and "better
for you" hot dogs using statistics prepared by Information Resources Inc. Hot
dog sales in Los Angeles and the Baltimore-Washington came in at second and
third in total supermarket dollar sales.

5. D) Ronald Reagan
– in 1980. Two other presidents also served
hot dogs at official White House functions: Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter served
them at a White House picnic in 1977 and Franklin D. Roosevelt
served King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of England hot dogs and beer at a
picnic during a White House visit in 1939.

6. C) 1,996 feet
– The Sara Lee Corporation made a 1,996 foot wiener in honor of the 1996
Olympics. It took over 2,000 buns to hold the huge hot dog that wrapped twice
around the
Georgia Dome field.

7. C) Yellow
– On
July 4, 2004 champion
Takeru Kobayashi set a new world record and walked away with a yellow belt
after eating 53.5 wieners with buns in 12 minutes, earning the coveted mustard
yellow belt and retaining his official world crown for the fourth year in a row.
Known in the competitive eating world as “The Tsunami”, he earned his title by
winning Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest in
New York, a competition which started in 1916. Kobayashi also holds world
records for eating cow brains. There’s just no accounting for taste, huh?

9. A) He has them for
dinner every night
- As the story goes, eighty-nine-year-old Charlie has eaten hot dogs for dinner
every night of his life since he was 11 months old. He eats them on rye bread
with the crusts removed-and still loves them.

10. D) Franky Frank
– Other members of the less popular and quite bizarre
Mr. Potato Head “Picnic Pals” set included Willy Burger, Frenchy Fry, Mr.
Soda Pop Head, Mr. Mustard Head, and Mr. Mr. Ketchup Head. They included
ketchup and mustard colored parts, plus all new face pieces in the shapes of
pickles and onions! Another variety of friends for Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head were
the “Tooty Frooty Friends” line, which included Oscar Orange, Pete the Pepper,
Cooky the Cucumber, and Katie Carrot.

11. C)
Signed buns– Burt Reynolds was
the first big name to eat at Packo's and sign a hot dog bun, when Tony’s
daughter Nancy wanted him to write his name on something to commemorate his
visit. It occurred to Reynolds to put his pen to Packo's breadstuff. This
precedent was followed by scores of celebrities, including President Clinton, Mickey
Mouse, Emmitt Smith (Dallas Cowboys), and NASA astronaut Donald Thomas (who took
Tony Packo's Hot Dog Sauce aboard Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997).
Thousands of autographed hot dog buns now are enshrined on Packo's walls. The
tradition of "bun signing" continues to this day.

12. B) 26 million – That’s enough to stretch from Yankee Stadium in New York City to
Dodgers' Stadium in Los Angeles! Or, it's even enough to circle the bases 36,000
times. Sometimes more hot dogs are sold than tickets!

13. B) St. Louis
– Bar owner and German immigrant Chris Von de Ahe, who owned the St. Louis
Browns baseball team, introduced the hot dog to Browns' fans in 1893. This is
the first recorded linking of hot dog with baseball. And speaking of baseball
and hot dogs, Babe Ruth once ate 12 hot dogs and drank eight bottles of soda-pop
between games of a scheduled double-header <burp>!

14. A) The smell of hot dogs wafting down from the stands was simply
irresistible to the hungry players
– Free safety and defensive captain Eugene Robinson, quarterback Rick Mirer, and
defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy were fined for
violating team rules. During the third quarter of a pre-season game in San
Francisco, the three players were caught eating hot dogs while standing on the
Seahawks' sideline. The three had seen action in the first half of the game and
were not slated to return. If not for the presence of network television
cameras, they might have been able to consume the hot dogs without being
detected. The cameras, however, caught the players "trying furtively to eat the
hot dogs."

16. B) Mustard
– Mustard remains the “wiener” at 32% (and 87% of hot dog eaters use it).
Ketchup is preferred by 23% (though it ranks #1 among younger adults), though
the Hot Dog and Sausage Council recommends against consuming ketchup on hot dogs
after the age of 18. Chili came in third at 17%, followed by relish (9%) and
onions (7%). Southerners showed the strongest preference for Chili, while
Midwesterners showed the greatest affinity for ketchup. Nationwide, however,
mustard prevailed. Interestingly, though
ketchup remains one of the most popular condiments on hot dogs, "properly
made" hot dogs, like the Chicago-style, usually lack the condiment. Those who
consider themselves hot dog connoisseurs are often vehemently opposed to eating
(or even witnessing) hot dogs with ketchup; they think the flavor of ketchup
overpowers and destroys the taste of the hot dog instead of complementing it. In
some Chicago hot dog stands and restaurants, ketchup is not offered as a hot dog
condiment. Furthermore, asking for ketchup may result in a rebuff by the vendor
(perhaps a refusal to serve the requested order or a slamming of hands on the
counter).

17. D) Kansas City
– Kansas City Dogs are
served with sauerkraut and melted Swiss cheese on a sesame-seed bun. Elsewhere
in the U.S., Easterners eat more all-beef hot dogs than any other region of the
country. New York hot dogs are served with steamed onions and yellow mustard.
Southerners eat Slaw Dogs… dragged through the garden and topped with coleslaw.
Midwesterners eat more pork and beef hot dogs than any other region of the
country. Chicago Dogs are served with yellow mustard (NEVER with ketchup!),
dark green relish, copped raw onion, tomato slices, and topped with a dash of
celery salt on a poppy-seed bun. And Westerners eat more poultry dogs than any
other region of the country.

21. D)
Chicago, 1936
– As an ad gimmick, Karl G. Mayer, nephew of the lunchmeat mogul Oscar Mayer®,
invented the company's Wienermobile™. On July 18, 1936, the first Oscar Mayer®
Wienermobile™ rolled out of General Body Company's factory in Chicago at a cost
of $5,000 and was 13 feet long. The Oscar Mayer® company has a fleet of six
cruising America these days. They go all over the place, spreading the good news
about, well, Oscar Mayer® wieners, what else? The Wienermobile™ vehicle has
traveled in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Puerto Rico and Spain. In the year 2000, it
added Mexico and Germany to the list too! Each Wienermobile™ vehicle travels
about 1,000 miles per week or about 50,000 per year.

25. C)
Little Oscar
– George Molchan, who portrayed company mascot
Little Oscar died on April 12, 2005 at the age of 82. The WienermobileTM that George Molchan drove in life stood parked
at his grave side, eliciting smiles from the dozens of friends and family
present. The 50 or so people at the Calumet Park Cemetery grave site broke into
a chorus of the company theme song, "I'd love to a be an Oscar Mayer®
wiener," followed by a few quick blasts on miniature, hot-dog shaped whistles
handed out to the crowd. Not your typical burial, but Molchan would've loved
it, a bystander said.

26. B)
Madison, Wisconsin
– (the headquarters of Oscar Mayer since 1955!) The city council — in this most
progressive of American cities — sought to rid vehicular advertising from their
fine streets. But then one astute council member asked the key question, “Are we
banning Little Oscar?"

27. A)
“Hotdoggers” – To become a “hotddogger,” you need a college degree and you
should be skilled in the field of communications, journalism, advertising,
marketing or public relations. More than 1,000 "wiener wannabees" apply to Oscar
Mayer® every year for the right to be an official "Hotdogger" for one year—for
the privilege of driving one of those big dogs down the street. But Oscar Mayer®
picks only the top dogs; of those 1,000 applicants, only 21 cut the mustard. The
21 lucky wieners, er, winners are sent to Hot Dog High at the Oscar Mayer®
headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. The subjects at Hot Dog High are always
"meaty." Students learn all about Oscar Mayer® history and products, get briefed
on special events planning, and pick up the secrets to maneuvering their buns in
traffic. Graduates are officially sworn in by the President of Oscar Mayer®,
and they take the Hotdogger Oath: “As official Hotdogger of the celebrated Oscar
Mayer® Wienermobile™, I salami swear to uphold the dogma set forth here, and I
promise to encourage wiener lovers nationwide to relish the delicacy, ketchup on
the great taste of hot dogs, and give in to the craving once it's mustard. Be
frank and furtermore, to be upstanding in a line for hot dogs at ball parks,
barbecues, buffets, and other bashes. Journey into the streets, dachs und ports
of my community, wish well to all comers, plump and lean -- and leave them with
a wiener to roast about. As once I wished I were, now I am -- an Oscar Mayer®
Wienermobile™ Hotdogger.” And then they drive around in those vehicular
vittles, telling people all about the wonders of hot dogs and Oscar Mayer® and
other stuff. Some Hotdoggers have even appeared on MTV, The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno, and The Late Show with David Letterman. Now that's what I call runnin'
with the big dogs!

28. C) Al
Unser, Jr.–
He topped off at a speed of 110 mph.

29.
A) 2 cents
– and they were sold in vending machines.

30. B)
Richard Trentlage
- in 1963

31 D) Vienna Symphony
Orchestra – In
1968 the Vienna Symphony Orchestra performed the tune in a commercial that ended
with a little boy clapping at the orchestra's performance and then taking a bite
out of a wiener. An announcer closed by saying "The Oscar Mayer wiener—a
classic." The ditty was also recorded by the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, as well
as a teenage rock band, a string ensemble and a Nashville country western
group. My apologies if the little ditty is now stuck in your head for the rest
of the day.